zardoz-13 James Cagney made his cinematic debut as a reckless, irresponsible, narcissistic bootlegger who conceals his criminal endeavors from his long-suffering mother in director John G. Adolfi's "Sinner's Holiday," co-starring Joan Blondell. This early black & white movie is an adaptation of Marie Baumer's stage play "Penny Arcade." Since I haven't read Baumer's play, I cannot attest to the film's fidelity to its source material. This Warner Brothers/First National release concerns the activities of a Penny Arcade in New York City and the various hucksters who operate on W.C. Fields' credo that "There's a sucker born every minute." Character actor Grant Withers, who you might have seen in John Ford's memorable westerns "Fort Apache," "Rio Grande," and "My Darling Clementine," takes top billing as smooth-talking Angel Harrigan, and he has his eyes on pretty young Jenny (Evalyn Knapp of "His Private Secretary"), whose mother (Lucille La Verne of "Orphans of the Storm") owns the premises and rents out booths to various entrepreneurs. One of those entrepreneurs is a shady guy, Mitch (Warren Hymer of "Meet Joe Doe"), who bootlegs beers on the side. Ma Delano's son Harry (James Cagney) has fallen under Mitch's evil influence. Appropriately enough, Harry has learned not only the ropes of the bootlegging business, but he also plans to double-cross Mitch after the latter is pulled in a warrant by the police. Mitch happens to like Jenny, but she won't give him the time of day. One day when Angel irritates Mitch, Mitch gives him the boot, but Angel quits before he is officially fired. Ultimately, Angel and Jenny become a couple and she persuades her mother to hire Angel as a mechanic. After Mitch gets out of the slammer, he discovers that treacherous Harry has been swindling him. They encounter each other in an ally with firearms, and Harry plugs Mitch and then stashes the body out of sight in a building on the premises. Ironically, Harry's sister witnesses the shooting, but she clams up about it until the police decide to arrest Angel for the homicide. As it turns out, the revolver that Harry used to ice Mitch belonged to Angel. Ma Delano, who has already lost her husband, doesn't want to lose Harry. Initially, she tells Harry to put the revolver back in Angel's suitcase. Reluctantly, Jenny informs the police about the identity of real killer. Since the cops had closed down the arcade during their painstaking investigation, business resumes as usual with Angel back at work. This dated outing has some interesting period flavor, particularly in its blue-collar argot. At one point, Cagney's sniveling Harry perches himself on his mother's knees just as he would do decade later as Cody Jarrett in Raoul Walsh's classic "White Heat." Joan Blondell plays a woman who allows men to have their pictures taken with them. One of the most amusing sights—pretty risqué if you think about it—is a game where you get to sling balls at women sitting on chairs to win a prize. If you like old Warner Brothers' melodramas, you cannot do better than the 60-minute "Sinner's Holiday."

st-shot Save for the debut of James Cagney and Joan Blondell Sinner's Holiday is a rather lifeless early sound experiment of urban lingo spoken from the side of most of the cast's mouth. Chuck full of cynicism and greed with a murder and sappy romance thrown in for good measure it flounders from the outset.Ma Delano runs a penny arcade on the midway with her three kids. Two contribute but youngest Harry (Cagney) would rather work where the big money is with bootlegger Mitch McKane. After McKane fires his barker Angel Harrigan (Grant Withers) Ma takes him on. When Mc Kane ends up dead Harrigan becomes the prime suspect.Sinner's Holiday is filled with hard boiled eggs but most are rotten. It's endless tough talk and little else as director John Adolfi, probably ham strung by the microphone does little to bring any verve or suspense to his scenes. The mercurial Cagney and sassy Blondell bring some life to their limited roles but Withers sarcastic lead looks bored most of the time and Evelyn Knapp as his love interest about as engrossed as he. Holiday is no way to enjoy one.

MartinHafer Joan Blondell and Jimmy Cagney appeared in an undistinguished Broadway play "Penny Arcade" and it closed after only a couple dozen performances. However, according to IMDb, Al Jolson saw the play and liked it--particularly because of performances by the unknown Blondell and Cagney. So, he bought the rights and then sold them to Warner Brothers--and insisted the pair reprise their roles. However, it's very hard to see what Jolson saw in this play--and Cagney's performance didn't seem all that distinguished. And, if Cagney and Blondell hadn't gone on to become stars, I'm sure this film would have long been forgotten.This is the rather earthy story about a woman and her grown kids. She insists that her sons should not get involved with the bootlegging racket. Naturally, Cagney doesn't listen and soon gets in over his head. This leads to an argument with his boss and ends up with Cagney killing the man. So, it's up to Mama to try to save his sorry butt--and she's more than willing to pin it on an innocent man instead.Seeing Cagney in this film is interesting. He's certainly NOT the confident hood like he'd soon play in "The Public Enemy" or other gangster films. Here, he's really spineless and annoying--and you wonder how this role led to better things. It just wasn't that distinguished and the overall film looked like a very ordinary B-movie. The only standouts were Blondell (who was quite good in her relatively small role) and Lucille La Verne as the rather soul-less Mother.Is the film worth seeing? Well, if you are a huge fan of classic films and you are the type (like me) who wants to see all the films of a particular star, then this one is worth your time. Otherwise, it's just not all that good and it's just a time-passer...at best. And, I think its current score is a bit overrated.

calvinnme This busy little film that was originally entitled "Penny Arcade" was retitled "Sinners Holiday" for no other reason than the fact that there were several films put out in 1930 with "Holiday" in the title that were successful. This film may have its fair share of sinners, but nobody is really on holiday in this fast-talking fast-paced little piece of Vitaphone history.James Cagney starts out his career with Warner Brothers pretty much where he ended it - crying on his mother's lap just as he did in "White Heat" - the lap of a mother that will do anything to keep her baby out of trouble. Cagney plays Harry Delano, a tough guy who thinks he's tougher and smarter than he really is. His family runs the Penny Arcade in the amusement park. Evelyn Knapp plays his sister, Jennie. Jennie is in love with amusement park smart guy Angel Harrigan (Grant Withers), an ex-con and handyman at the arcade who has the misfortune of being at the wrong place at the wrong time when Ma Delano needs a fall guy to save her son Harry. It also doesn't help any that Ma Delano doesn't approve of Jennie's plans to marry Angel.James Cagney gets more screen time in his first film than he does in any film until he gets his big break in Public Enemy. There is also a pretty good role for Joan Blondell in her first screen appearance as Myrtle, some-time girlfriend of Harry - also someone Ma Delano doesn't approve of. Who exactly did Ma Delano think her kids were going to wind up with while working in the amusement park? Wall Street types? How did Cagney and Blondell end up together in this film, you might ask? Al Jolson bought the film rights to the Broadway production of "Penny Arcade" and would only sell it to Warner Brothers if Cagney and Blondell reprised their roles. Why he did this nobody knows, since Al Jolson was hardly known as a benefactor. However, in doing this he saved Warner Brothers a second time. The first time was in putting the studio on top in talking pictures, this second time he gift wrapped two actors that were perfect for the urban look and feel that the studio had been going for but had been having a rough time succeeding in getting right with the actors they were employing.In summary, this film is full of the interesting minor characters, urban slang, and fast talking that make the early talking Warner Brothers films so much fun.